Toyota pulls no punches with new vehicles - Business - International Herald Tribune

DETROIT — If there is one word to describe how Toyota Motor has behaved in its 50 years in the American market, it is careful — careful not to expand too fast or appear brash in its goals, lest it stir up political resentment as it gathered market share at the expense of Detroit.

But Toyota is making some surprisingly aggressive moves this week at the North American International Auto Show as it heads into markets long dominated by its American and European rivals. And the moves represent a notable shift for a company where conservatism has been a watchword. On Sunday, Toyota unveiled the Crew Max, a bigger, four-door version of its new Tundra pickup truck, which itself will be the biggest truck Toyota has sold in the United States.

And on Monday, Toyota's Lexus luxury division was due to take the wraps off two high-performance models, including a powerful sports car, the first in a new line of cars that it has dubbed F — for fast.

The new vehicles, analysts have said, are an important sign of Toyota's direction as it prepares to pass Ford Motor and become the second-biggest carmaker in the American market, vying with General Motors for global leadership.

While Toyota executives insist that its actions do not represent a departure, the vehicles and the company's actions speak louder than its words. This shift can be traced back to Toyota's decision five years ago to build a plant in San Antonio, Texas, chiefly to make big pickups, in contrast to its other American factories, which can produce a variety of cars and light trucks.

Within the next few weeks, Toyota will most likely announce the location for its eighth North American assembly plant. Three Southern states remain in the running for the plant, which would open by decade's end, said a senior Toyota executive who spoke on condition of anonymity. And that plant may not be its last.

No longer does Toyota fear the reaction it faced as recently as the 1990s, including accusations that it had dumped minivans at lower prices than it charged at home, or a tax on its imported luxury vehicles that Detroit carmakers did not have to pay.

The new models and the new plants are a sign that "Toyota is confident and that they don't have any concerns about going after whichever market they deem to be their next frontier," said Karl Brauer, the editor in chief of Edmunds.com, a Web site that offers car-buying advice.

Indeed, Toyota executives now feel no political heat as the company expands.

"The fact of the matter is that there is very little, surprisingly little backlash," said Yukitoshi Funo, the chief executive of Toyota Motor North America and the company's highest-ranking executive here.

A big reason, he said, is that Toyota has been investing billions of dollars and creating thousands of jobs in all parts of the United States, from California to Michigan and Southern states. Another is that many companies, not just automakers, participate in a global market.

"Fortunately, I think maybe American society has undergone some change," Funo added.

That change makes it far more palatable for Toyota to introduce vehicles like the Crew Max, aimed squarely at truck buyers who need to haul equipment and want four full doors, not just the modest escape doors found on extended cab trucks, and essentially do business from their trucks.

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Beyond that, Crew Max has 44.5 inches, or 1.13 meters, of rear leg room — 10 inches more than many coach airplane seats — and is available with Toyota's biggest engine, a 5.7-liter V8 with 381 horsepower.

That is a departure from Toyota's reputation for building fuel-efficient vehicles. And it is a far cry from Toyota's first full-sized pickup, the T- 100, whose lack of power and towing capability made it made it a pale imitation of the trucks that GM, Ford and Chrysler had on the market.

But the protectionist heat Toyota faced back in the early 1990s forced it to develop what Robert McCurry, then the vice chairman, called a "political truck," deliberately designed to skirt criticism that Toyota was attacking an American stronghold.

That is no longer the case. Moreover, engineers at Toyota's operations in the United States were given authority for Tundra and will be getting more such assignments for vehicles that will be sold only here, Funo said.

That is not an easy transition, in what has been a Japan-centric company, said Jeffrey Liker, a professor of engineering at the University of Michigan.

"For them, the real risk of globalization has been diluting their culture and losing their identity as a company," he said. "They've been working very hard to avoid that, but at the same time they'll admit that's been difficult for them."

The shift, however, is necessary, to ease the workload in Japan that has mushroomed as Toyota has grown, and to keep Toyota in touch with American consumers, Liker said.

Detroit companies are watching Toyota's efforts with a mixture of skepticism and concern. Rick Wagoner, chief executive of GM, said that his company was ceding no ground to Toyota, especially on pickups.

"We've shown we can compete well at that game," said Wagoner, whose company recently rolled out new versions of its pickups. He went on, "Toyota's good, but let's be honest, Ford and Dodge are not easy competitors in this segment, either. I think it's going to be a tough fight."